by LAWTON, Okla. – Ava Battese (Comanche/PBPN) scored 25 points and added another accolade to her senior season as she joined the program’s 1,000 Point Club in the Aggies’ tough loss at the hands of St. Mary’s on Thursday night.
Cameron’s sharpshooter needed just seven points to reach the milestone heading into the matchup with the Rattlers. She was just one away at the break as she scored six points in the first 20 minutes of action. Then with 6:32 on the clock in the third quarter, Battese drained a triple to earn her 1,000th point, a accolade only 11 CU women’s basketball players have done before. She finished the night with 25 points, giving her 1,018 for her career.
In the CU record books, Battese is within striking distance of the most recent member of the club, Alexis Williams, who has 1,059, but is over 580 points away from the program record of 1,602 held by Aggie Hall of Famer Jo Tashuda.
In the first quarter, the Aggies deployed a full-court press from the word go, a strategy that the Black and Gold have used sporadically throughout the season but would not rely on it for an entire game.
While the pressure in the backcourt added a layer to the CU defense, the Ratters were able to adjust with seven quick points before the media timeout. The Aggie full-court press was able to create five turnovers but on the offensive end, the team gave away the ball three times and went over five minutes between their first and second buckets of the night.
Neither team could truly get anything started offensively, as this game turned into a defensive grind in the first frame. Both sides failed to reach double-digit points until there were 13 seconds remaining in the quarter.
At the end of one, the Black and Gold trailed by eight the defensive pressure head coach Emma Andrews put on StMU was effective in forcing nine turnovers in the first frame and holding the Rattlers to just nine shot attempts in the quarter.
To start the next period, Cameron’s offensive struggles continued as they did not earn their first points of the second quarter until the 6:57 mark when Maighan Hedge nailed a three-point shot that doubled the Black and Gold scoring output.
At the first media timeout of the second, the Aggies had gotten up to 13 points of offense and only trailed by ten. Hedge led all scorers to this point with nine points to go with her steal.
Cameron, while forcing 12 turnovers in the first 20 minutes, had committed 12 themselves and could not battle off the second quarter scoring outburst from the Rattlers. In the second frame, the Rattlers shot 55 percent from the floor.
Battese was the catalyst for the Aggies comeback in the third quarter, scoring 15 of her – points in the third, and pulling the Black and Gold within one point after a made three-point shot at the end of the third quarter. That gave the Aggies all the momentum heading into the final ten minutes.
The Aggies were able to capture their first lead since the opening possession of the contest on the team’s first offensive possession of the fourth quarter. However, at the Media Timeout in the quarter, CU found themselves needing another comeback. The team was down four with five minutes to make it up.
In the final five minutes the Black and Gold offense went cold, seeing the Rattlers go on a 9-4 scoring run after the media timeout to put away the Aggies and win 72-62.
Hedge and Battese were the lone Aggies in double figures, scoring 19 and 25 points respectively.
